Guterres appoints Amina Mohammed to top UN post

Incoming UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday announced the appointment of Nigeria’s Environment Minister Amina Mohammed to be the UN’s number two official and tapped two other women for key leadership posts.

Guterres has made gender parity a priority of his tenure which begins on January 1.

Senior Brazilian foreign ministry official, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, will serve as Guterres’ chief of staff while Kyung-wha Kang of South Korea was appointed to the new position of special advisor on policy.

Mohammed was widely tipped to become UN deputy secretary-general after she led the UN’s successful negotiations on the new sustainable development goals.

Viotti, who is Brazil’s undersecretary for Asia and the Pacific, also served as ambassador to Germany and as UN envoy.